Workers Must Abide by the Terms and Conditions

29-4-2018 | IslamWeb

Question:

What does Islam say about workers owning the means of production, meaning the workers making decisions in the workplace instead of only the boss doing so.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

We did not clearly understand what you mean by your question.

However, we can say that the workers must abide by the terms and conditions of their contract and not contradict them as long as those terms and conditions do not contradict the Sharee’ah.

The Prophet said: "The Muslims are bound by their conditions, except a condition that forbids what is lawful or permits what is unlawful." [At-Tirmithi who said: it is a Hassan Saheeh Hadeeth]

Therefore, the workers must do what they are required to do according to the contract, and they must also stop doing what is not part of their authority, because the worker is but an agent for the employer. The rule determined by the jurists is that the agent can only act according to the limits for which he is hired [i.e. the limits set by his employer according to what he is entrusted to do], and according to what his trustee authorizes him to do.

Ibn Qudaamah said in his book Al-Mughni:

"The agent can only act according to the permission of his trustee, whether the latter said that to him orally, or that this is something known according to the customs, because he can only act according to the permission; so he is restricted to what he is given permission in." [End of quote]

Allah knows best.